Dallas is the second-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest city in the United States. The city covers 385 square miles (997 km²) and is the county seat of Dallas County.[4] As of 2005, U.S. Census estimates put Dallas at a population of 1.2 million. The city is the main cultural and economic center of the 12-county Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area-at over 5.8 million people, it is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States and the largest metropolitan area in the state of Texas.

In a larger context, the Dallas-area is seen as right-wing politically, with a heavy cultural emphasis placed on Protestant Christianity and close historical and cultural ties to both the rugged American West and agricultural South. The popular television series Dallas bolstered this view epitomizing the city with wealthy oil barons, big hair, and cowboy hats. However, present-day Dallas as a singular entity can be seen as fairly liberal, even exceptionally so.

Dallas is renowned for barbeque, authentic Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine. Famous products of the Dallas culinary scene include La Calle Doce, Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse, El Fenix, Mi Cocina, Bone Daddy's Barbeque, the Mansion on Turtle Creek, and the frozen margarita. The French Room at the Hotel Adolphus in downtown Dallas was named the best hotel restaurant in the US by Zagat. On average, Dallasites eat out about four times every week, which is the third highest rate in the country, behind Houston and Austin, and Dallas has more restaurants per capita than New York City.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Dallas, Texas